Fiber Friday - Farm Play Mat Update

I got another field done, and most of another one complete as well. I decided the pale beige would count as khaki yarn; perhaps it's a wheat field. 8) I decided that the yarn I have harmonizes well together, so matching the pattern colors isn't crucial. I want to use as much yarn that I have as possible, instead of buying more.
These are two of my oldest horses, the core herd as it were. I can't for the life of me remember their names, but the one on the right is the boy and the left is the girl. Anatomically correct horses in the 60's, radical!

Fiber Friday - Farm Play Mat with Animals

Apparently there is some confusion over the farm play mat. I thought maybe an animal would help give it some context (and make it look less like the start of a really ugly afghan). Fortunately I had my entire collection of toy horses to choose from, so here's Sparky enjoying the plowed fields.
Doesn't everyone have their childhood toys lining the top shelf of their closet? Really? No one? Well, right about the time when Secretariat was tearing up the Belmont track, I was at the height of my horse-craziness. Let's just say Sparky has plenty of company on the top shelf. 8) The dark brown square in the middle is the newest field, and I started a second one just like it.

Curtains up and Farm Mat Progress

The curtain rod arrived yesterday, and we got the valence installed in the kitchen this evening. It looks nice, but the main thing is we won't see so much of our neighbor's junk now. The land goes up just outside the window, and their stuff towers over the fence. They store this stuff, supposedly "hidden away from view"; only we can see it. The valence should obscure it nicely.

I made a little progress on the Farm Play Mat, actually more than it shows since I had to start over. I made a mistake, and it is nearly impossible to recover from mistakes with this stitch. You knit into the back of a stitch on each row, which puts funny twists in the yarn, which fall apart when they come off the needle. It was much simpler to just start over.
I like the pattern though, and the stitch goes fairly rapidly, even though I'm being much more careful now. I think it looks like another plowed field. 8)

Disappearing Nine-Patch Project Day - and Farmville Update

Today was "Disappearing Nine-Patch" project day for the Blanketeers. Here's Sheila with the first quilt top of the day completed. Love that pink and turquoise!

Here we are, all hard at work. Look how fast Rachel's hands are going; they're just a blur! 8) And check out Virginia's cool kitty prints. We all used the same quilt pattern, but they SURE don't look the same!
Here's Dorthy on her trusty old Singer. It's amazing how well the old machines are holding up. I hope my Artista 180 is still plugging along when it's 50.

I didn't quite get my quilt top finished. Too much gabbing and too little sewing, I guess. I didn't notice until I laid out the blocks to take this picture, but the top row is clearly put together wrong. Sigh. I guess there is more "frogging" in my future. You know, "rip it, rip it". 8)

Today was supposed to be Farm Play Mat update day. You can see how much of THAT I actually accomplished. lol It's a start.

Farmville Revisited - and Then There were Two

I made a second field. Don't these look like freshly plowed little fields? OK, use your imagination. 8) There are 12 fields total in the Farm Play Mat. The best part is that there are only 2 more fields made out of seed stitch. K1, P1 is so slow if you knit Continental like me.

I have a small problem, this farm doesn't have any ponds, streams, lakes or watering troughs, but I have LOTS of blue yarn. I'm thinking perhaps a stream or a pond might be called for. What do you think? Every farm needs water, right?

New Project - Knitted Farm Play Mat

I bought a book in Green Bay over Thanksgiving called Toy Knits by Debbie Bliss. See, I used to knit a lot and I have a LARGE yarn stash. One of my New Year's resolutions is to use some of it up. 8) I started making the "Farm Play Mat", one, because it's really cool, and two, because it uses many yarns I already have. My current plan is to have it ready for the Peppers & Pinatas auction in fall. Here it is with some of my stash:

It's basically a knit play mat with lots of little farm animals. So far I have just one square of the play mat done. You can see it up there at the top of the picture. Part of my resolution is to do a bit each week and report my progress on "Fiber Fridays". Wish me luck!